


hung my wings

by julesandothernecessities



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Divergent, First Kiss, Fluff, Growing Old Together, Love Confessions, M/M, based on that one michael sheen tweet, with a dash of angst, you know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-06-30 11:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19852333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julesandothernecessities/pseuds/julesandothernecessities
Summary: “Well, my old eyes wouldn’t make me very human now, would they? They were hardly subtle,” Crowley cut in.There was a beat of silence. The two of them stared at each other.“What-“ Aziraphale tried.“Perfectly ordinary is good, yeah?” Crowley interrupted him once again. “I’d hardly fit in here with this lot if I went around looking like a snake.”





	hung my wings

**Author's Note:**

> first time writing for this fandom, but michael’s tweet —https://twitter.com/michaelsheen/status/1151271080448921600?s=21 — struck something within me :’)
> 
> wrote this in about an hour. please be kind

The punishment didn’t fit the crime, but maybe Aziraphale was biased. He certainly wasn’t complaining. He was considered a traitor — and rightly so — in every term of the word, and Heaven had reacted accordingly. 

Really, he was rather fortunate in his sentencing. And that’s how it was viewed: a sentence. With the punctuation being death, natural and unavoidable as it was for all humans and other mortal creatures. 

He did miss his wings, though, and the conveniences conjuring up miracles brought. He got to keep his books, at the very least, and remain in the town he had resided in for so long. And he got to continue experiencing the pleasures he enjoyed so much, though it would come to find a limit. 

To be among the people he enjoyed so much, as one of them. It was poetic, really. 

He never got the chance to ask Crowley for his opinion on the matter, as he hadn’t caught much sight of the demon after his Fall. 

Wings clipped, earthbound, Aziraphale was only capable of waiting and hoping that Crowley hadn’t up and gone for good. Earth wouldn’t be very fun, if that were the case. 

Aziraphale didn’t have to wonder where the demon had gone and when he was coming back for much longer than a few months, as Crowley was soon sauntering into the bookshop. 

The ring of the bell at the door announced his arrival, and Aziraphale looked up with palpable excitement, and a dash of relief. 

“Crowley!” the former angel greeted, hopping up from his seat and rounding the stack of books to approach his friend. “How good it is to see you. I hope all is well.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Crowley said shortly. “All’s well, fine... All’s good. Good.”

“Good,” Aziraphale repeated, still smiling, though he did find the other’s behavior a tad bit odd. 

Silence. Three months wasn’t a very long time, all things considered, especially for an angel. But Aziraphale was no longer an angel, and it felt as if it had been dreadfully long since he had last seen Crowley. 

“Nothing new with... Down There, then?” Aziraphale asked. He cleared his throat delicately, subtly pointing downward and looking for any indicator from the demon. 

Crowley stared, as if he didn’t understand, and then got it. He seemed dreadfully antsy, and rather... well, out of it. 

“No,” he answered, and shook his head. “There’s only just...”

He paused, and Aziraphale waited expectantly with only slightly raised eyebrows and hands folded in front of him. 

Crowley huffed, and then removed his sunglasses to reveal eyes. Dark, brown eyes. No longer like a snake’s. Beautiful, but not...

“Oh, dear!” Aziraphale cried. His hand flew up to cover his mouth. “Oh, oh dear. Whatever happened to your lovely eyes?”

“These ones work just fine,” Crowley shrugged, his face carefully blank of any expression. His brown eyes regarded the former angel carefully. 

“They _are_ fine,” huffed Aziraphale, frustrated that he wasn’t given an answer, “perfectly ordinary, but that doesn’t explain _why_ or _how_ -“

“Well, my old eyes wouldn’t make me very human now, would they? They were hardly subtle,” Crowley cut in. 

There was a beat of silence. The two of them stared at each other. 

“What-“ Aziraphale tried. 

“Perfectly ordinary is good, yeah?” Crowley interrupted him once again. “I’d hardly fit in here with this lot if I went around looking like a snake.”

Aziraphale swallowed, dread taking hold of him suddenly and leaving him breathless.  _Breathless_ . He’d been human for nearly three months and he had yet to get used to the need of breathing. 

His heart twisted in his chest. Another thing he had yet to get used to. As he shifted, Crowley shifted as well. As he inhaled, Crowley inhaled. 

“What are you....” he tried to get out, but had to swallow around the words. He made another attempt, fearing the answer he might get. “What are you implying here, Crowley?”

“I’m not implying anything, angel,” Crowley said. 

Aziraphale grimaced at the term. But Crowley wasn’t being cruel as he said it. Couldn’t be cruel, when he was looking at him like _that_ , with those blasted brown eyes that looked so— 

“I’ve gone native,” Crowley sniffed. Shuffling on his feet, he glanced to the ground. Aziraphale stared at him with barely concealed horror. His voice was thick as he continued, “‘m mortal, now. My choice, though they didn’t make much of an attempt Downstairs to get me to stay. Still haven’t gotten used to the whole breathing bit, but give it time.”

A strained sound left Aziraphale. The former angel’s face had gone blank, drained of color as he finally came to understand just what was going on. Something he had never thought possible in all his years of existing. And yet here Crowley was, standing before him. Looking so uncertain, and so blatantly _human_.

“My dear,” Aziraphale murmured. He took a step forward, and Crowley glanced up. “Tell me you haven’t—“

“But I have!” Crowley snapped with sudden anger. His brown eyes bore into Aziraphale, causing a shudder to run up the shorter man’s spine. 

Elegant hands inelegantly flailed around as Crowley was barely capable of containing all that he was feeling, struggling to convey what he wanted to say, to make Aziraphale understand. He must be so overwhelmed, all this new stimulation and emotions. Crowley as a demon was already quite vulnerable to being emotional, but now as a human... it didn’t bear thinking about. 

“Hung up my wings,” he continued, much softer and sadder now, but not with an ounce of regret. His arms dropped to his sides. “Never really liked it Down There, anyway. WiFi’s horrid unpleasant. No concerts, no open bars.”

He shrugged his shoulders. Hands stuffed in his pockets, he looked to Aziraphale with an acceptance the other had yet to grasp. 

Aziraphale’s fingers fiddled before him. Unsure how to answer, and having trouble taking this in, the man drew in several short yet steady breaths as he looked at the other. 

“But you...” he attempted, then fell quiet. He shook his head and sighed. “But this means you will  _die_ , Crowley. Grow old. You won’t get to experience all the wonders and pleasures of the future, to witness and be present for all that is yet to come!”

Crowley scoffed and waved his hand, dismissive, “Do you really think I didn’t consider that? I’ve experienced plenty. More than any other demon or human ever has. Where does that leave you?”

“But, you  _love_ th e world, Crowley!” Aziraphale huffed, face flushed with confusion and despair and countless of other emotions. 

Crowley stared. Several moments passed. A completely different kind of understanding and acceptance came across the former demon’s face. Like this was a long time coming. 

“Not as much as I love you.”

Something within Aziraphale shattered. It shattered, and then instantly brought itself back together. Crowley stared, and it was Aziraphale’s turn to understand. 

And soon after, his turn to accept. 

“Oh,” Aziraphale murmured, shaking his head. His eyes stung. This wasn’t nearly his first time crying as a human, but it was the first time out of happiness. “ _Oh_ , my darling.”

Crowley squirmed with sudden discomfort. Embarrassment. He scratched at the back of his head with his thumbnail, looking anywhere but Aziraphale. He glanced at him from time to time. 

His mouth worked uselessly, forming no words. Only throaty and stuttered sounds that made Aziraphale’s features split and crease with a grin. 

_How adorable._

“Really should’ve done it earlier,” Crowley began to mumble, as he often did when he found a moment to be awkward and rather unbearable. “Food tastes much better, and I bet it’ll be a whole lot easier getting dr—“

He was silenced as Aziraphale was suddenly wrapping his arms around and enveloping him in a hug. Their hearts leapt at the contact, and a warmth neither had experienced in all their time as an angel and demon respectively filled them both. 

“Oh,” Crowley breathed. Slowly, he returned the embrace. His nose buried in Aziraphale’s hair. Everything was coming together. “This... this is quite nice.”

“Yes,” Aziraphale giggled, very pleased, all things considered. He must be. He never felt so much love, even when he was an angel. 

“Feels like I’m beating out a samba,” Crowley said curiously. His brow was furrowed, his heart pounding rather intensely and speedily against his ribs. 

Aziraphale only hummed. They held each other like that for several long minutes, enjoying the warmth and finality of the moment. Finality, and yet it was not over. Their years were numbered, but they would be spent together. And that was all that mattered, really. 

“I’m still quite cross with you, I’ll have you know,” Aziraphale scolded with a great amount of fondness as he pulled away. “And I’ll miss your old eyes terribly.”

“ I’m sure I’ll never hear the end of it,” Crowley said with a grin. 

Aziraphale attempted to hold onto his frown, but was proven incapable as he was soon beaming up at the other man. He tugged at the lapels of Crowley’s jacket lightly, just for the excuse of remaining close. 

“Look at us,” he wondered aloud, quietly. “Two humans. Who would have thought?” A small, giddy chuckle left him. 

“I can’t say it ever crossed my mind,” Crowley responded. His expression was soft, brown eyes aglow with the light of love. “But it feels sort of like fate, doesn’t it?”

Aziraphale made a thoughtful noise. Lips pursed, he considered the concept of fate, and found it quite agreeable. He gave a nod of his head. Hands resuming their steady exploration of Crowley’s jacket, they soon settled on the former demon’s chest. Right over his heart, which Aziraphale believed was beating in tandem with his own. 

“Quite right, I imagine,” he said. “There mustn’t be another term for it. None that I’ve yet crossed, in all my time as a human.”

The two of them laughed. Pressing closer to one another, their noses brushed. They breathed together, and their hearts beat in time. 

“Well, angel,” Crowley purred, and Aziraphale shivered with delight, “might there be any certain pleasures a new human should experience on his first day?”

A shaky sigh fell from Aziraphale’s lips, eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks as he leaned closer. 

“I can imagine a few,” he murmured, and then pulled Crowley down for a kiss. 

Crowley and Aziraphale lived the rest of their days with much more delight and rapture than they ever had as a demon and angel. As humans, they were unabashed in their love for the world and, more importantly, for each other. 

They didn’t travel much, but when they did, they were together. Always, and much more than they ever had been in all their prior 6,000 years on Earth. No Heaven, no Hell, and no other meddling forces of the sort to bother them or cause worry. 

Their time on Earth ended very much the same as it began, as it was always meant to be; by each other’s sides, with nothing but each other and the anticipation of what was yet to come. 

**Author's Note:**

> smash that like button if you caught the doctor who reference


End file.
